Main Navigation

Diary: On the QT ....

Debenhams' pitch has been nicknamed Ohio. Why? Because it's set to swing the final positions at the top of the New-Business Rankings table at the end of the year. If WCRS retains the business it will stay at number two. If not, its pitching rival Delaney Lund Knox Warren & Partners will move in to the slot. Should Clemmow Hornby Inge win, it will simply bolster its league-leading position... Talking of CHI, the agency's Christmas party invitation isn't for the squeamish. Taking its cue from the musical Chicago, it features a zoot-suited Johnny Hornby flanked by Simon Clemmow and Charles Inge dressed as gangsters' molls. Worse, all CHI staff have been given poster-sized versions of it... What sort of qualities do you need to work at D&AD? An appreciation of the best leading-edge creativity, perhaps?

Not a bit of it. Shock resistance and the ability to keep your breakfast down when all around you are losing theirs would seem to be essential prerequisites. Recently, the organisation took delivery of boxes of award entry work which had been in storage for several years. As staff opened up the historic haul, Michael Hockney, the D&AD chief executive, was alerted by screams. One packing case contained the skeleton of a rat that had been trying to gnaw its way out... Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R's sparkling new Christmas campaign for Marks & Spencer will have to work hard to drive seasonal sales. But the chief executive, James Murphy, knows all about that. During a stint on an M&S checkout this time last year, Murphy had the temerity to ask a rather grand lady customer if she would like a store card. "No, I would not" was the withering reply from Dame Maggie Smith... Nestle Rowntree's outspoken managing director, Chris White, is apparently an old rocker at heart. When he's not giving Nestle's advertising icons the elbow, he likes to jam with his buddies Status Quo. Maybe he'll enlist the talents of his pals for Nestle's next brand overhaul.